USDOL Issues Proposed Rule: Nondiscrimination and Equal Opportunity WIOA

Treats Segregated Centers as Discrimination

Deadline for Comments: March 28, 2016

 

The U.S. Department of Labor's Civil Rights Center published January 26, 2016, a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, NPRM, to provide important updates to the existing nondiscrimination and equal opportunity regulations of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.

 

The WIOA mandates the department to issue regulations to implement Section 188 of the law, the provisions that require equal opportunity and nondiscrimination in the workforce development system. Section 188 prohibits discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, political affiliation or belief, and for beneficiaries, applicants, and participants only, citizenship status, or because of an individual's participation in a program or activity that receives financial assistance under Title I of WIOA.

 

This NPRM contains substantive changes necessary to address developments in equal opportunity and nondiscrimination law since 1999. In addition, the rule revises procedures and processes for enforcement of the nondiscrimination and equal opportunity provisions to reflect changes in the practices of recipients, including the use of computer‑based and Internet‑based systems to provide aid, benefits, services, and training through WIOA Title I‑financially assisted programs and activities.

                                             Segregated Services as Discrimination

 

The proposed rule provides sweeping rights for individuals to allege discrimination with services as compared to that "afforded others," or provided "other individuals." The rule establishes that providing, segregated or separate services is a form of discrimination. Providers would have the burden to prove that segregation was necessary and that services provided where just as effective.

 

Section 38.12(a)(3) & (4) states that a funded provider "must not, directly or through contractual, licensing, or other arrangements, on the basis of disability":

 

(3) Provide a qualified individual with a disability with any aid, benefit, service or training that is not as effective in affording equal opportunity to obtain the same result, to gain the same benefit, or to reach the same level of achievement as that provided to others;

 

(4) Provide different, segregated, or separate aid, benefit, service, or training to individuals with disabilities, or to any class of individuals with disabilities, unless such action is necessary to provide qualified individuals with disabilities with any aid, benefit, service or training that are as effective as those provided to others;(underscoring added for your attention by MKAI)

 

Public comments on this NPRM may be submitted, identified by Regulatory Information Number 1291‑AA36, by any one of the following methods:

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